Electronic apparatus, such as handheld electronic devices can comprise a display screen, a keypad for control and data entry purposes and one or more pointing devices.
Conventionally the user of handheld electronic devices relies on the use of pointing devices to interact more effectively, within the limitation of the relatively small display screen available, with the host of applications available such as, to mention a few, web browsing, emailing, SMS, word processing, spreadsheet and games.
Pointing devices enable the user to interact with the application running on the handheld electronic device by moving the cursor within the display area in a desired position for instance to select commands, follow links, drag shapes and objects or input text.
There are a variety of pointing devices such as for instance touch screens which detect the position of a stylus or a finger on the display area, joy sticks, arrow buttons, and buttons with a four way swivel which depending on the tilt move the cursor on the screen along four orthogonal directions, track balls or jog dials.
The touch screen, amongst the above mentioned pointing devices, provides the handheld device user with the most intuitive and efficient interface. However due to comparatively higher costs compared to other pointing devices, touch screens tend to be incorporated only in medium to high end specification products.
A first need requiring addressing is therefore the provision of a more cost effective touch screen solution which may find particular application in entry level to medium specification products.
Within each application there are some commands which are used most often than others such as for instance the ENTER function, scrolling down or scrolling up, scrolling left or scrolling right, zooming in or zooming out, moving back or moving forward web pages, moving page up or moving page down, undo and redo command and many others.
The speed of selection of these most common commands depends on the type of pointing device being used and the skill of the user.
When using a computer keyboard the most common commands can be accessed generally quicker by using either keyboard keys or keyboard short cuts consisting of a simultaneous press of 2 or 3 keys, rather than by using the pointing device; especially if the command is nested within one or two levels of, submenus.
For instance, in Windows applications, page up within a document may be accessed using the “Page up” key on the keyboard or undo the latest command may be accessed by pressing simultaneously the “CTRL” and “Z” keys.
On a small keypad of an electronic handheld device some keys such as the “Page up” and “Page down” keys may not be not provided due to lack of space and the simultaneous pressing of 2 or 3 keys is a cumbersome operation.
A second need requiring addressing is therefore the provision of better ways of quickly selecting or implementing commands similar to that provided by computer keyboards.
The most common arrangement for a conventional handheld electronic device such as a mobile phone is the provision of the display screen above the keypad.
The limitation of this design is that the size of both the display screen and the keypad is reduced as they are sharing the same surface area on the device.
A first solution to this problem is to adopt a configuration similar to a computer laptop by providing the display screen on one half of the device, the keypad on the other half of the device and a hinged mechanism between the two halves, with the axis of the hinge parallel to one of the sides of the screen, thus enabling to achieve within the same footprint of a conventional phone a considerable increase of the size of both the display screen and the keypad.
With this configuration, sometimes referred to as flip configuration, when the device is not in use, the flip is folded covering the display screen and when in use the flip can be opened and rotated usually up to 180 degree around the hinge presenting the display screen and the keypad to the user.
The added benefit of this configuration is that the display screen is protected when the device is not in use as the flip is folded over.
The drawback of this configuration is that for certain uses of the device, such as for example watching a video stream, the user does not need the keypad once the selection of the media to be played has been made and therefore the half of the phone housing the keypad becomes temporarily a hindrance.
A second to the problem in conventional handheld electronic devices of the display screen and keypad sharing the same area is to conceal the keypad underneath the display screen when not needed and to present the keypad to the user when needed by providing either a sliding mechanism between screen and keypad halves or a rotating mechanism between the two with the rotation axis perpendicular to the screen.
A drawback of this second configuration is that the display screen is always exposed to the risk of damage from scratches and abrasion.
A third need requiring addressing is therefore the provision of a solution addressing the limitations of both the flip design configuration and the slide configuration in handheld electronic devices providing display screen on one half of the device and the keypad on the other half.
Design constraints, such as the small size of handheld devices can necessitate the inclusion of a keypad with fewer keys than a conventional QWERTY keyboard. The provision of all the letters of the alphabet can be achieved by using some or all of the keys of the keypad to select more than one letter of the alphabet.
The composition of text messages on mobile telephones highlights the shortcomings in the use of a keypad with a limited number of keys. The mobile telephone user composes a text message by entering the component letters of the alphabet on a keypad. Typically, the keypad has a limited number of keys, e.g. twelve to fifteen, since the keypad is primarily provided for the entry of telephone numbers. Accordingly, there can be fewer keys available on the keypad than letters of the alphabet.
A known solution to this problem is the use of each key to enter one of two or more different letters of the alphabet. For example, the number 9 key might be associated with the characters ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’. Normally, the number of consecutive key-presses within a set time interval determines which of the available characters is selected. For example, one key press selects ‘w’ and four key presses selects ‘z’. This mode of operation is often termed a multi-tapping input mode.
However, the multi-tapping input mode has drawbacks. Clearly, the approach can require a significant number of key-presses to compose anything other than the shortest of text messages. For example, entry of the word “hello” can require the user to type 44, 33, 55, 55, 666, thus involving eleven key presses instead of six. Under certain circumstances, e.g. prolonged use, a user can develop repetitive strain injury (RSI).
A reduction of the number of key-presses can be achieved by the arrangement disclosed in WO 02/27432A2. According to WO 02/27432A2, the keypad comprises a limited set of letter entry keys and each letter entry key can be used to enter one of several letters of the alphabet. An auxiliary key is provided on the keypad for selecting which one of the letters is to be entered upon operation of one of the letter entry keys.
The present applicant has realized that the arrangement of WO 02/27432A2 can have drawbacks. Both the auxiliary key and the letter entry keys of WO 02/27432A2 are of a pushbutton type and thus can predispose the user to RSI. In addition, the arrangement of WO 02/27432A2 can be inconvenient to use, in that operation of the auxiliary key can be incompatible with one-handed operation and in certain circumstances can be difficult even with two-handed operation.
A fourth and last need requiring addressing is therefore the provision to the user of handheld electronic devices of ways of reducing the amount of multi-tapping required when inputting text.